Thowback Thursday: How Salt Lake City’s skyline has evolved over the years

By Carter Williams
| Posted May 19th, 2016 @ 10:00am

SALT LAKE CITY — It’s hard not to notice the construction of the 111 Main Tower in downtown Salt Lake, especially as it alters the city’s skyline.

The 24-story building is slated to be completed and open later this year. It will be the third-tallest building in the city when completed.

As the Salt Lake skyline changes, this week’s Thursday throwback takes a look back at the Salt Lake City skyline and how it has evolved over the years.

The beginning

An illustration of Salt Lake City in 1851 and first known daguerreotype of the city by J. Wesley Jones. (Photo: Photo Courtesy Utah State Historical Society Archives)

View of Salt Lake City from what is now Capitol Hill sometime around the 1870s. Photo shows road construction on North Main Street. (Photo: Photo Courtesy Utah State Historical Society Archives)

Salt Lake City as appeared in an 1886 edition of Harper's Weekly. ( Photo Courtesy Utah State Historical Society Archives)

Salt Lake City's growth didn't really begin until the late 1800s and early 1900s. The completion of the Salt Lake Temple in 1893 and Salt Lake City County Building in 1894 opened the gates for a Salt Lake City skyline.

People celebrate the laying of the final capstone on the Salt Lake Temple sometime around 1893. (Photo Courtesy Utah State Historical Society Archives)

The Boston Building (1908) and Newhouse Building (1909) began Salt Lake's race of building skyscrapers. In 1912, the Walker Bank Building opened as the city's new tallest building and — at the time — one of the tallest buildings in the Intermountain West.

A large crane lifts large neon letters made by Rainbow Neon Sign company of Salt Lake City up onto the Walker Center in Salt Lake City, Utah Saturday, Jan.12, 2008. (Photo: August Miller, August Miller/Deseret News)